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Slender: The Arrival stalks ratings for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U
You can't escape Slender Man. Even if you unplug your old consoles and huddle under stronger machines, you're still not safe. That's what new ratings from PEGI (Europe's content rating board) suggest anyway, as a 12-and-up grade has been assigned to Slender: The Arrival's sudden appearance on PS4, Wii U and Xbox One. Release dates included in the ratings range from October 23 to October 24, which seems ... wrong, given the current-gen port's absence from Europe's digital marketplaces. Majesco Europe Limited is listed as the The Arrival's publisher in each content rating however, so at least that part reflects reality. Brave souls can also venture into The Arrival's creepy woods on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac, but we propose joining our cowardly sanctuary under the bed, where we're definitely safe and none of life's monsters can ever get us. Well, except for the one that lives down here ... [Image: Midnight City]
Slender: The Arrival shines a dull light on PS3, Xbox 360
Slender Man is here. He's creeping through your PS3 and Xbox 360, waiting for you to plop down $10 so he can appear on your TV screen, dressed to the nines but still without a face. Slender: The Arrival on consoles expands the original game with new story elements and extended levels, and those who already own the game on PC will get the new content free of charge. More information about that free PC DLC is due in a few weeks. Slender: The Arrival is the "official" Slender Man game, written by members of Marble Hornets, the creators of the original Slender Man YouTube videos, and developed by Blue Isle Studios. The game's scare factor comes mostly from sensory deprivation – players get a camcorder and a flashlight to investigate the dark woods and hallways in a small, haunted town. "The story centers on an unwitting participant in the Slender Man mythos who walks into a mystery that just keeps pulling her in deeper," publisher Midnight City writes. "Lauren, a realtor helping a friend sell her property, arrives at Kate's home just to find a cryptic note and an empty house. Powering up her camcorder, Lauren takes off in search of Kate, but unbeknownst to her something ancient, dark and other-worldly is stalking her every step of the way."
Slender: The Arrival lands (right behind you) March 26, pre-orders up
Slender: The Arrival is here for pre-orders, and probably your soul, direct from developer Blue Isle Studios, now with a launch date of March 26. Slender: The Arrival comes in a handful of pre-order options, starting with a $5 discount price that grants players a download of the game and access to the beta today. The game will cost $10 when it launches, and for that price players get everything in the $5 option, but "are feeling generous," as Blue Isle puts it.$15 gets the same goodies but includes a copy of the soundtrack on launch day; $25 is all of that plus five downloadable, high-resolution paintings from the game. The top tier, $60, snags everything in previous options plus your name in the credits as a super special thank you.Ah, the joy of indie games: Scaring your pants off for a fraction of the price of mainstream retail titles.[Thanks, Alex!]
Faceless: Slender Man stalks, blocks Greenlight's top game from Steam
Faceless has been the No. 1 game on Steam Greenlight since fans voted for the first batch in September, and it was the top game during the second round, which Greenlit 21 games in October. Faceless still holds the spot today, but when Valve announces the next group of Greenlight games, chances are it will be skipped over once again. Faceless is haunted by the rusty chains of the legal system. It's a horror game that tells the tale of Slender Man, the elongated, suited phantom notorious for stalking gullible children and teenagers (though mostly just those who own handheld cameras). Victor Surge initiated The Slender Man mythos on the Something Awful forums in 2006, and it migrated to YouTube in 2009 in a series of "lost footage" videos from Marble Hornets. The footage chronicles Slender Man as he haunts a film student, Alex, slowly driving him to paranoia before he is lost to the ether and insanity. The first episode has 2.4 million views and the channel now hosts 64 full entries, last updated in October 2012. Slender Man is a horrific viral hit. In a sense, Slender Man stalks Faceless developer Justin Ross just as he does Alex – the Slender Man legend is the reason Faceless can't yet be approved on Greenlight. "We've been the No. 1 game since the service launched and have yet to be Greenlit due to copyright issues with Slender Man, which is a free-to-use entity, and we've even gotten permission from the creator Victor Surge," Faceless developer Justin Ross tells Joystiq. "It's starting to feel like Greenlight games aren't chosen by the community like Valve has stated, and it's instead their choice, not the community's."
The Endermen are coming for you in Minecraft mob update
Notch has already seriously cut into our sleeping time simply by creating Minecraft, but with this new, horrific mob we'll be lucky if we sleep one wink per week. Notch's "Endermen" were designed specifically to creep players out -- to not only be scary, but to be gut-twisting terrifying. In his blog post, "The psychology of the reticle and the feeling of control," Notch describes how he created the Endermen and what they will do to raise your heart rate: "Suddenly you could walk up to these looking beasts (they're three meters tall) and watch them as they moved their blocks around, but as soon as you happened to look straight at them, they'd attack. And by 'straight at them', I mean putting the reticle on top of them. You can keep them visible on screen and actually look straight at them in real life, but as soon as your in game character looks straight at them, boom. "Still, that was more scary than creepy.... I wanted something a bit more psychological. So to really drive home the point of looking at them being bad, I made the Endermen freeze and turn towards you when you look at them. As long as you look straight at them, they stand perfectly still and look straight at you. As soon as you look away, they will run (very fast) towards you. "And they teleport." The Endermen will begin stalking Minecraft with the Adventure Update, but if you can't wait, check out the inspiration for the creatures' name, Slender Man.
